Freestone?

What is a Freestone stream/river? Is it one where the stones on the bed are free to roll - or one where the bedrock is free of stones?

Or is there some other meaning.

Some examples: Freestone or not?
The Leny - outflow from Loch Lubnaig.
The Teviot upstream of Ancrum bridge.
The Neath.
The Teifi.
The Wharfe at Appletreewick.

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

It's an American term so there are no freestone rivers this side of the Atlantic. I always assumed it is the same thing as our spate rivers. Hence all the rivers in the West Country would be freestone while the chalkstreams wouldn't. How they would classify the outflow from a loch I don't know, tailwaters come out of dams don't they?

Andy

In that case there would be no 'spring creeks' either. This would be American for chalk and limestone streams.

There's an English word with exactly the same meaning - "Winterbourne".

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Plusnet/Madasafish > Liars to the internet community

Freestone: as others have said an American term that is much used & loved by UK fishing mag writers.
My take on it is
A river, dependent on precipitation (rainfall) to maintain reasonable flow & levels
ie A spate or rain fed river in the UK.
Tight Lines

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"The Future's Bright The Future's Wet Fly"

I understood it to mean any stream that is not a spring creek (fed predominately by underground springs) or a tailwater (fed by cold water discharged from the reservoir behind a dam).

It seems to be used here to differentiate the source of the water, I don't think it has an exact meaning as far as bottom composition. Many of the freestone streams here have sand, gravel, rubble, and silt sections all in the same mile.

Grouse